Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. List 15 books you’ve read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag as many friends as you want to, including me, because I’m interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your Profile page, paste rules in a new Note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the Note, upper right-hand side.)

* People of the Lie – M. Scott Peck; helped me understand that evil exists and how to cope. (maybe it’s time for a re-read?)
* The Road Less Traveled – M. Scott Peck; the title is a great sign for what this book teaches about how to find your path in life.
* The Tao of Pooh – Benjamin Hoff; understanding the nature of people from an Eastern philosophy perspective changed how much access I had to the world.
* The Bermudez Triangle – Marueen Johnson; A stunning treatise on that point in your life when your friendships start to separate, and how to keep them close to you anyway. I wish this had been written (and read) during my high school years.
* The Anarchist’s Cookbook; The idea that access to “secret” information was possible opened my scientific curiosity out of the classroom (where it was being stifled.)
* Research #18: Pranks – Expanded my understanding of what “art” could be.
* An Introduction to Data Structures with Applications; giving my otherwise disorganized brain a way to conceptualize storing and retrieving data solidified my love of computers for life.
* Chomsky for Beginners – David Cogswell; I have never been able to comprehend “Language and Mind” or any other Chomsky scientific paper, so this simple-man’s explanation of how language is a powerful tool that reveals and can change the mind was relevatory.
* Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card; As a gifted child I had never read anything more in tune with the my isolation and frustration of life’s challenges.
* Speaker for the Dead – Orson Scott Card; It isn’t a sequel. Ender’s Game was just a prologue to a novel that explains relationships in a revolutionary manner. The words created for this book should enter common English(International) language.
* 2600 (any issue) – Emmanuel Goldstein; Before the internet, ‘zines let you know that your hobbies weren’t unique, and you could find a community in other cities around the world.
* Harry Potter and the Sorcers Stone (+4) – J K Rowling; The big bang that put Young Adult books on the map, thereby opening my eyes to the best in contemporary fiction. I pre-ordered two of every book since the first so I wouldn’t lose potential reading time loaning it to my wife.
* Chilton’s for Nissan Pulsar 1987(?) – demystified auto repair; Dad and I replaced the rack-and-pinon in my car and that outlasted all the other parts.
* The Sandman #1 – I found out that comics could be darker and more mature than most adult fiction.
* Cerebus #? – In the letters to the editor I learned that you can love a piece of art and still think the creator is a real douche.

Comments:

John Osmon
i forgot “anything by malcolm gladwell” and “freakonomics by stephen levitz” because they teach in simple english how to approach social concerns logically.
August 12, 2009 at 10:29am ·